College Sports

Metro State 5-9 guard Brandon Jefferson has big role on 32-2 team

Junior guard Brandon Jefferson, a Texan, says coming to Metro State "was definitely the right decision for me." (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

In the fall of 2010, when Brandon Jefferson arrived at Metro State, he assumed — and often acted — as if Division II college basketball would be a snap. The 5-foot-9 junior point guard came off as if he believed he could play as he always had as a high school star in Flower Mound, Texas, both running the team and being its major offensive threat.

"He was the guy in high school," Clark said after the Roadrunners' practice at the Auraria Event Center on Tuesday. "He got all the shots. It all went his way and they had a lot of success. And the reason they had a lot of success was because of him. So he gets here and we had to go through the process of letting him know he had to come in here and earn what he got. But he figured that out pretty quickly. ... The maturation process is extraordinary, in terms of his leadership."

Sunday, Jefferson will direct the Roadrunners (32-2) in the Division II national championship game against Drury University (30-4) of Springfield, Mo., at Atlanta's Philips Arena.

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His scoring average of 14.7 points leads a balanced Metro State attack that has all five starters averaging in double figures.

"Coming in here, I had never been told what to do," Jefferson said. "I was the man in high school, and when I came here it was a reality check. Coach got on me every day in practice, and I learned to control my attitude, be a good listener and a good cohort for my teammates on the court. I've become an all-around player."

"A dream come true"

Metro State won national championships in 2000 and 2002 and was the national runner-up in 1999, all under Mike Dunlap, now the head coach of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats.

This will be the first time the nationally televised title game will be played in conjunction with the Division I Final Four. The Roadrunners won twice in Louisville, Ky., last week to advance to the title game, returned to Denver for a few days and left for Atlanta on Wednesday.

"I guess we needed to come home because I didn't have any more clean clothes," Jefferson said with a smile. "It's all good. This is a dream come true. God blessed us with this opportunity."

Jefferson's father, Brian Jefferson, is a mechanic for American Airlines in Dallas and tended to be stern with Brandon as he was growing up. In fact, Jefferson said, one of the reasons he came to Metro State was that Clark reminded him of his father.

Jefferson had come out of Lewisville High School near Dallas as a Class 5A co-player of the year in Texas' District 6, but mainly because of his size — 5-9 might be a stretch — and the fact that he isn't a pure, distributing point guard, he didn't get full-ride Division I offers.

He's fine with the way it worked out, though, getting one of the 10 full scholarships Metro State can offer under the Division II limits and finding a home at the Regency Student Housing Complex — the reconfigured former north Denver luxury hotel — with his teammates.

"This was definitely the right decision for me because of Coach Clark and his assistant coaches," he said. "They've made me feel at home."

A-OK after loss to CSU

This season, Metro State opened with an exhibition game against Colorado State, hanging in for much of the game before losing 87-67 to the Rams on Oct. 28. Jefferson said the Roadrunners aren't embarrassed by that and considered it a learning experience.

"Colorado State's a great team," Jefferson said. "They had a bad draw with Louisville (in the NCAA Tournament). They could have been a Final Four team. I think they're just as good as Wichita State. Playing Colorado State was a wake-up call for us too. We all tried to be heroes. We realized we have to move the ball, play as a team."

Part of the Metro State tra- dition, started by Dunlap, is bringing in players from Australia. This season, the Roadrunners have two starters from Down Under — Mitch McCarron and Nicholas Kay.

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